Is Your Site About You Or Them?

Imagine you need to swap out the dishwasher in your kitchen (the device, not a person). If you didn't want to do the job yourself, you'd call a plumber, or go look for one online. Now, imagine the plumber spends her or his time telling you about their credentials, about why they charge what they do, about how they're the very best at what they do. Great, but will you help me swap out the dishwasher?

Is Your Site About You Or Them?

If you haven't visited chrisbrogan.com in person lately, click that link. What's the first thing you see after my handsome face? "Use media and community to earn customers." It says clearly what I'm offering you on this site.Now, swing by my redesigned Owner Media site. You scroll down half an inch and it'll say "Skills for the Modern Business." It's right there, what I sell.Your site is how you sell and it's an important salesperson. But for whatever reason, most people seem to build their websites as a way of explaining that they're worth it, that they're a really good person, etc. Yes, people want to know that stuff, but they mostly want to know how you'll help them solve their problem.

Steal from the Best

I swung by Tim Ferriss's site to see what he was saying these days (on his site - I listen to his podcast sometimes). There was a really straightforward question: "If you could 10x your per-hour output, how would your life and business change?" Ah, I guess I know what Tim's selling me that I might want.

My buddy John Jantsch has two doors you might go through on his site, meaning he sells to two different (but somewhat related) groups. See how he deals with that here. We use a similar three path approach at Owner Media Group. Scroll down to look at it.

My friend and sometimes co-author Julien Smith runs Breather. Look how he puts the whole purpose for why you'd choose breather as the dead center of his site.

Brian is an Owner Insider and runs Editorr. His explanation is dead center of the site and visually explains (in a smart way) why you'd use his service. (And do use that service.)

What About You?

Do people know why they've come to your site? Are you answering that for them right off the bat? Are you echoing what you do to help others first and foremost in your site design and your copy? If not, why not?

By the way: it's something we're working on with our Owner Insiders in the coming months, so if you want help, I'm your man.)